Has my bidding for an auction gotten rigged? Help needed!

[roanplayz]

Hello guys, I've been bidding on an auction item for a collectible Xbox 360 that just listed early in the morning (Jan. 28). It was an item I was really wanting to have for a long time so I placed a max bid for $600.50, so I can make sure that I can win it as those type of video game consoles gets sold around $300-$400 normally. Still, I did want to be over in case someone did wanted it as much as I do. Throughout the morning, only one eBay user who had 455 reviews (legitimate user) had his bid placed at $330 as they were trying to get the item too but seemed like he gave up. But what happened very weirdly was that around the afternoon, there was an eBay user who looked like a new account as he didn't have any reviews and no bid history and placed a $1000 bid on the item and retracted it right away. At first, it might have been a mistake, and went on from it. But then a couple of hours later, the same user made another bid that was $10 more than my max bid ($610.49), but retracted it again. That was when I thought things were getting really concerning. And then just a minute later, another eBay user who has no reviews and no bid history and there's a chance it might be the same person but a different account, just bid the exact price that my max bid was except without the 50 cents ($600). So now my current bid is set to $600 which is 50 cents less than my max bid ($600.50), and the user didn't bid anything higher than that afterward, so now I'm stuck with a bid that I'm paying for that's exactly at my max bid which was something I didn't want to do at all. I'm very concerned as to what happened here as this eBay user retracted the bid twice, most likely to see what my max bid was, and never outbid me, and now this eBay user is making me want to pay my item at the highest max bid that I bid for. I am new to bidding so I don't know what can be going on here but I feel like there's something wrong here. Do I need to get in touch with eBay support? Should I get in reach with the seller? Because I don't want to retract my bid because of this and I know bidding is a contract, but if someone is going to outbid you, they wouldn't bid a super high price that's above my max bid and retract it immediately and then set their bid 50 cents less to my exact high bid and just leave it like that. I have posted screenshots of the bid history, please help! Thanks!

[reallynicestamps]

Sigh.
If you don't want to pay $600+ don't bid $600+

.

You have a very short time to cancel your purchase, but that has probably passed.

You can ask the seller to cancel your purchase. Tell him why (you think you were shilled) and that you will not be paying.

If he cancels the sale goes to 6***3 as a Second Chance Offer, then to 3***1.

You may be able to see this in the seller's Sold Items listing (left of Items for Sale) in a few days and tell which one by the price.

Bid once.

Bid your maximum.

Bid late.

[nobody*s_perfect]

---

@reallynicestamps wrote: ... You have a very short time to cancel your purchase, but that has probably passed....

---

A bidder can retract their bid if the auction has more than  12 hours left.

During the final 12 hours, a bid can be retracted only within one hour of being placed. This auction started yesterday, so this bidder probably has plenty of time to work this out.

[nobody*s_perfect]

As mentioned in the other post, it is unwise to bid more than you are willing to pay. And bidding very late is a better strategy than biding early.

Nevertheless, it does look like shill bidding and if I was in your situation I would just retract the bid and move on to another listing. And if I found another item to bid on,  I'd bid late. At the end of the auction ,the winner is the highest bid, not the earliest or latest bid.

[roanplayz]

Understood, I am aware of the eBay trick to bid at the last minute or so to win it, but this item was something I was looking forward to as I've been searching for one like this for the last couple of days. $600 for my max bid I somewhat don't mind, but that was only set for my max bid, meaning I was really expecting to win the auction if the current bid was around $300-$400, not at the exact max bid. I just don't get why someone would bid at $1000, retract it right away, and then bid again at my exact max bid and leave it like that. It's very concerning to see and suspicious to me as I never encountered something like this before.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Of course it's suspicious. Either this bidder is in cahoots with the seller, hoping to drive up the selling price, or (more likely) they just want to spoil this auction in order to drive up the apparent value of this item, or perhaps because they are working with a competitor to drive up the price of this item so other bidders will bid on the competitor's item instead.

[mtgraves7984]

"It was an item I was really wanting to have for a long time..."

"... as I've been searching for one like this for the last couple of days."

@roanplayz 

"The last couple of days" is nothing on eBay. Get out of this one if you can then set a Search and Save it. Good luck.

[12345jamesstamps]

Check the seller's feedback as to whether they do auctions a lot...Old seller or a new seller? Sometimes it best to check a seller's background first before making a purchase for hundreds of dollars.

Cancel the transaction...that depends on the seller's background....will you actually receive what was on auction? If item has tracking but goes to another person near you...are you covered? Or you get something else in a box? Is this a new seller which you won an auction from? That would be a cancellation in my opinion...and just my opinion.

[wastingtime101]

---

@roanplayz wrote:

 there was an eBay user who looked like a new account as he didn't have any reviews and no bid history and placed a $1000 bid on the item and retracted it right away. 

---

The purpose of that was to reveal your max bid.

If there was no subsequent bid, then it could have been done by a competing buyer, wanting to know how much they'd have to bid to beat you.

But since there was a subsequent bid 50 cents below yours, obviously it's malicious. Either someone messing around, or perhaps the seller forcing your high bid using a shill account. Shady no matter what the reason.

[nobody*s_perfect]

---

@12345jamesstamps wrote:

Check the seller's feedback as to whether they do auctions a lot...Old seller or a new seller? Sometimes it best to check a seller's background first before making a purchase for hundreds of dollars.....

---

The seller is a TRS with nearly 1000 feedback as a seller, and an eBay Store which offers quite a few vintage electronics.